Pope Francis accepted Tuesday the early resignation of French Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon following years of Vatican scrutiny over the ordination of clerics using pre-Vatican II liturgical books and other concerns.
Bishop François Touvet, appointed coadjutor bishop of the same diocese in November 2023, now automatically succeeds Rey.
In a Jan. 7 press release, Rey, who has led the diocese since 2000, said he was recently informed by the nuncio, the pope’s ambassador in France, that Pope Francis wanted him to submit his resignation after he had encouraged him not to resign in December 2023.
While Rey added that he does not know what changed in the intervening year, “faced with misunderstandings, pressures, and polemics that are still harmful to the unity of the Church, the ultimate criterion of discernment for me remains that of obedience to the successor of Peter.”
The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the south of France was able to ordain six men to the transitional diaconate last month after all ordinations in the diocese were halted by the Vatican in June 2022 following a fraternal visit by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille.
The ordinations of six seminarians from the traditionalist community Missionaries of Divine Mercy took place in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin in Lorgues on Dec. 1, 2024.
In his announcement ahead of the ordinations, Touvet said they were “the fruit of a trusting and peaceful dialogue maintained with the superior of the community [of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy] and the Dicastery for Divine Worship [and the Discipline of the Sacraments].”
Pope Francis appointed Touvet a coadjutor bishop of Fréjus-Toulon in November 2023, putting him in charge of economic and real estate management, religious communities, and the training of priests and seminarians.
The Vatican requested the suspension of ordinations in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the summer of 2022 due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the diocese,” according to an announcement by Rey at the time.
Known for his support of the Traditional Latin Mass, Rey had also ordained diocesan clerics using the 1962 Roman Pontifical.
After Pope Francis promulgated Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 motu proprio restricting the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, Rey highlighted the concerns of some priests and communities present in his diocese who offered Mass according to the old rite.
Rey said in his Jan. 7 statement, posted to X, that “just as I have always tried to respond to the calls for the new evangelization of St. John Paul II, then to the encouragements of Benedict XVI to welcome and form priestly vocations, and finally to the orientations of Francis, I have agreed, in this case, to hand over the pastoral charge that had been entrusted to me in 2000 by John Paul II.”
“As I reach my 25th year of episcopate in service of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, I thank God for the blessings and missionary fruits,” he added.
Rey announced he will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the diocese on Feb. 1.
This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
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